TRAVEL GETTING WARMER DEPARTURES The Third With several new resorts, Los Cabos – already one of Mexico’s most popular areas – adds another dimension: sophisticated, low-key luxe. by Hugh Garvey. Photographs by Pia Riverola The view over the new Viceroy Los Cabos in Mexico Wave A DRONE HOVERED over a beach between the Pacific and the Sea of Cortés in southern Baja. The device was piloted by a crew documenting the rebranding of the new Viceroy Los Cabos, a striking minimalist structure where almost every room views the ocean and whitewashed walls contrast with the turquoise sea. You’ve seen the overhead tracking shot: waves breaking onto white sand giving way to guests languorously floating in charcoal pools. It’s said there are dos Cabos to Los Cabos, with the spring-break-heavy Cabo San Lucas to the southwest and the colonial town of San José del Cabo to the northeast. But if the drone pulled up higher it would see a third Cabo in the making, with a dozen other resorts under construction along the coast where the Sonoran Desert kisses the ocean: Nobu, Aman, Solaz, Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton. This third wave is not so much about revisiting the old party-townversus-serenity debate, but rather a region-wide integration of the best of Cabo, with better food, more tasteful design and a truer sense of place. Yes, you can have your margarita, but it’s likely to be made with an artisanal spirit like sotol. Yes, you can get a massage and an ionised salt bath in a world-class spa, but you are also encouraged to venture off-resort to taste a local food boom in the making. And thankfully, the newer resorts are less fantasy hacienda and more urbane and sophisticated.
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